SHILLONG: The state government has been unable to absorb several youths who had returned home from different parts of the country earlier this year in view of COVID-19 and the lockdown.
Close to 50,000 residents of the state had returned home since the pandemic gripped the country and a majority of them were youths working in different sectors outside the state.
However, now after months of staying here, many youths who have remained unemployed in the interim are now contemplating going back to their respective places of work outside the state.
Bapdiang L Nongbri, who was working as a nurse at Kohinoor Hospital in Mumbai, said after returning here, she had even submitted an application at the directorate of health services office hoping to get a job. However, she has not received any response so far.
Revealing her plan to go back to Mumbai within this month, a worried Bapdiang said, “I am suffering as my savings have dried up and I have to do odd jobs in the field and farms.”
Likewise, Aparna Chanda, who was working in a media house in Guwahati, said she was compelled to return to Shillong during the earlier part of the year after it became difficult for her to pay rent for her accommodation. “Now I am looking for a job in the city but we all know that unemployment is a big problem here,” she rued.
Concerned about the plight of the returnees, Planning Board Chairman Lambor Malngiang has suggested the chief minister to set up a skill development university in the state, which would not only cater to the returnees but also the unemployed youths within Meghalaya. According to Malngiang, the matter has become very serious and he has already apprised the chief minister on the situation.
Admitting that it was not easy for the state government to absorb all the unemployed returnees immediately, he stressed the need to address the unemployment problem given the chances of these youths being misled by anti-social elements.
Malngiang further said that around 20,000 to 30,000 youths working outside prior to the pandemic have returned to the state and are now looking for employment avenues.